Memories with Anonymous I

As I sat in the darkened theatre, I could hear the tapping of the raindrops on the roof of the building. My senses was heightened by a smell, the smell of the sea, a salty smell. Could it be raining? Its the smell of the rain in Bahrain. The smell of rain on an island!

And the memories came flooding back. I was in Secondary school then or perhaps in the first three months of Junior college. We were wearing the same blue pinafore. We possibly had lunch at the Scotts foodcourt.

Dear Anonymous, did you remember that day? It was raining and we didn't bring our umbrellas. I don't remember if IY was with us. But you had this card. This precious card of yours. I don't remember who gave it to you. But it was so precious to you that you wanted to protect it from the rain. You gingerly placed it in the front of your pinafore.

And we ran. We ran in the rain from Scotts to Tangs. We were not afraid of catching a cold, or a headache. We were young, carefree and invincible.

Perhaps somewhat foolish.

Remember those mornings we skipped school? Hung out with GESBs? I blame you for that! Thanks for inviting me along though. It was kind of you guys.

Remember that one morning we wanted to skip school but changed our minds? And we told Mrs Chan, our Physics teacher that we were late because your dad had a flat tyre? It was Physics practical that morning. We had to make sure that our stories matched and we discussed which tyre it was that needed to be changed. In case we were interrogated separately.

And we missed school on another day and the nurses were there doing some health check. And we changed the times on the card so we could leave school early to go to the clinic. Farah was so envious! Whatever happened to Farah.

We were plundering our youth. Our precious time before O Levels. We ought to be revising. Did we care? Imagine, we got by despite our playing truant. Imagine if we had really studied.

But I have no regrets.

I didn't fit in very well those days. Perhaps I still don't. I was the girl they always left out. But with you, I could hang out. You were like a book of P Ramlee movie quotes. And you knew exactly what quotes to use at the right time.

Do you remember those days?

I told you I think of you from time to time.